Hamilton on pole: urgent talks over quali posted in F119 | 03 | 2016
LEWIS HAMILTON BAGGED the 50th pole position of his career, but the achievement was overshadowed by the global criticism of the "new look" qualifying. Such has been the fallout that team principals will meet tomorrow morning before the start of the Australian Grand Prix to discuss implementing changes before the next grand prix in Bahrain.
Instead of generating more action on the circuit, the new qualifying format resulted in cars sitting motionless in the garages.
And where previously qualifying built-up to a crescendo as the top cars and drivers went out for a final-lap blast in order to improve their times, in Melbourne Hamilton and his Mercedes team-mate were out of their cars — having locked-out the front row — with more than three-minutes of the session remaining.
Ironically, Mercedes team bosses Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda were among the most vociferous critics of the format.
"I'm the first person to say that we shouldn't talk the sport down but when the evidence is there before your eyes, you cannot shut them and deny reality," Wolff said.
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"The new format is pretty rubbish: much too complicated to follow and a damp squib at the end with nobody running.
"These were the downsides that we expected to see, and they outweigh the upsides, that much is clear now.
"We wanted to listen to the promoters who were calling for a change, but my personal opinion is that we have found the wrong solution and we need to think carefully about what we do next."
His views were supported by three-times world champ Lauda.
"This is the biggest nonsense I have ever seen," the Austrian said.
"I was not even sure if I should congratulate Toto and our drivers on our front row.
"We have to call a team principal meeting and ask the FIA to change the format with immediate effect, and ideally for Bahrain. To introduce this was totally wrong."
And Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was another quick to pillory the new format, and call for immediate change.
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"We should apologise to the fans," Horner said. "We have not put on a show for them at all today which is a shame.
"It's not good for qualifying to be over with five minutes to go: drivers and cars need to be out on track fighting for pole up until the last second.
"We should accept that we tried it, it didn't work and the important thing is we learn from it and address it quickly."
The farcical reality of the new format, which left spectators at the Albert Park circuit confused, and had most people watching the ticking clock — as slower drivers were "knocked out" every 90 seconds — rather than the action on-track, resulted in tomorrow's team boss pow-wow.
Change can come quickly. Teams need to agree unanimously on any change and then have it approved by the F1 Commission and the FIA's World Motor Sport Council. Wolff is in now doubt, under the current circumstances, this could be achieved.
"If all the teams come together and say this is a unanimous opinion, then we have a pretty good chance of getting it through," he said. "I doubt anybody would lift his hand in favour of the new qualifying format."
F1 Australian Grand Prix, Melbourne — Qualifying:
1. Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 23.837s
2. Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 24.197s
3. Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 24.675s
4. Kimi Raikkonen FIN Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 25.033s
5. Max Verstappen NED Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 25.434s
6. Felipe Massa BRZ Williams-Mercedes 1m 25.458s
7. Carlos Sainz Jr ESP Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 25.582s
8. Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-TAG Heuer 1m 25.589s
9. Sergio Perez MEX Force India-Mercedes 1m 25.753s
10. Nico Hulkenberg GER Force India-Mercedes 1m 25.865s
11. Valtteri Bottas FIN Williams-Mercedes 1m 25.961s
12. Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda 1m 26.125s
13. Jenson Button GBR McLaren-Honda 1m 26.304s
14. Jolyon Palmer GBR Renault-Renault 1m 27.601s
15. Kevin Magnussen DEN Renault-Renault 1m 27.742s
16. Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber-Ferrari 1m 27.435s
17. Felipe Nasr BRZ Sauber-Ferrari 1m 27.958s
18. Daniil Kvyat RUS Red Bull-TAG Heuer 1m 28.006s
19. Romain Grosjean FRA Haas-Ferrari 1m 28.322s
20. Esteban Gutierrez MEX Haas-Ferrari 1m 29.606s
21. Rio Haryanto INA MRT-Mercedes 1m 29.627s
22. Pascal Wehrlein GER MRT-Mercedes 1m 29.642s
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Jim McGill